Prancer
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and twenty-three:  reindeer 3/8  It's the first Hummel-Hudson Friday night dinner, and Kurt's on planning duty.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 20th cycle. Now cycle 21! (I realized I didn't fix this line throughout the whole of cycle 20! *smacks forehead*)_

_So as I did it **last year (days 52 through 63)**, I wanted to do something Christmas-y, but not overly so. Last year I used the song of "**The Twelve Days of Christmas**", and this year I used... **Santa's Reindeers**! So the stories in and of themselves aren't Christmas-themed, just the title that inspired them is ;) You'll see :)_

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**"Prancer"  
Kurt (& Burt/Carole & Finn) **

Traditions had always mattered in their house. Since it was just the two of them, after his mother died, tradition was all they had to really keep them in one piece. And overall, one of their most cherished events was the Friday night dinner and the evening that followed it. At the beginning it was the one moment where they would really touch base, see how things had been going since the previous week, and in great part that was still what it represented. Even as he'd grown, started to go and hang out with friends, he rarely missed that night if he could help it.

Then once his father and Carole had started dating, Kurt knew it was only a matter of time before the Hudsons were integrated into these Friday evenings along with the Hummels. And finally it had come; his father came to ask. Kurt could tell he was nervous. He knew what the evening meant to Kurt, but then Kurt knew what Carole Hudson meant to his father. And seeing how much Burt wanted to honor these feelings his son had toward the custom, while at the same time desperately wanting to include the woman he loved into their lives… Kurt was able to just take a deep breath, in, out, and simply… go with it. No matter what, he couldn't deny how good Carole had been for his father, and how no matter how strangely they were coming to it… they did sort of work as a family.

And the clincher was Burt handing the reins to his son, telling him to plan the whole evening… He knew he was being buttered up, but he didn't care… He liked his party planning like he liked his makeovers… in his absolute creative control.

The general plan was clear: step one, dinner, step two, movie. It seemed simple enough… it really kind of wasn't… The movie, for example, had to please all four of them, but that just didn't exist. Their tastes did seem to split… about fifty-fifty… In the end he realized there was only one movie that covered both ends: Titanic. One half romance, one half action and disaster… no complaining. There would need to be appropriate snacks… Floaters? Lifesavers? Well, there was time to think about it.

The big thing was the dinner. Ever since Kurt had started showing a more… skilled grasp of the culinary arts than his father, he had taken over dinner duties, so this was all on him. He knew he could ask Carole for help and he would gladly receive it, but… he really wanted to achieve this thing on his own… It mattered enough that he had to insist. Besides, the idea was for the Hummels to host the Hudsons, not make them work. He did want them to feel at home in a way… warm, comforting… That was definitely what he wanted the menu to express. He went and pulled out his mother's old recipe book.

His father would say he treated that book with reverence. He picked it up, paused to look at it, touching the cover, before ever moving to open it. He just remembered her doing the same thing, pulling it out and observing it close, as though it held all the mysteries of the universe. If she thought it was that important, then so would he. It had taken a while, but eventually he had started adding his own entries to it. He had the same neat handwriting she did… Could almost swear it was the same hand writing it all.

He got lost in it for a while, but eventually he remembered his original purpose and started looking again. He believed they would want to remember the evening, a good memory… the first Friday dinner, the four of them… and he would deliver that to them.

It wasn't too hard, in the end… Once he had one thing figured out, the rest just started falling into place. His father would ask for sneak peeks, no doubt just as nervous as Kurt… if not more, but Kurt wouldn't budge. He went so far as to wait until the morning of it; he may have skipped a class to go to the supermarket and bring everything back home, but it'd be worth it if he had anything at all to say about it.

When the day was done, he hurried on home. Finn had offered to come over and help, but Kurt was fairly certain he shared Burt's kitchen 'talents,' so he politely declined. Instead, he got back home and got started. It wasn't long before things began to fall into place. As the scents filled the air, he knew he'd chosen his menu right, for the 'home' mood he wanted.

There was a time, as he stood waiting for the oven timer, when he had to stop and look around… everything was about to change. Even if no one would say it outright, they all knew it. And as much as Kurt had made peace with it, he couldn't help being at least a little scared. They couldn't go back; it was happening. But what if it went wrong? He'd set them up; it was going to be his fault…

The timer rang, and he snapped out of those thoughts. He'd planned a great evening for the four of them. He chose to see it as a good sign, as an example of what they could expect as they carried on, two paths merging.

THE END

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_A/N: Currently planning the Valentine's cycle and, for no reason I can reveal at the moment,  
__I need to gather up some great love songs, so if you have suggestions, let me hear 'em! :D_

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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